Turn Art Into Impact!
Water usually gets noticed when there’s too much, too little, or something goes wrong. Gwinnett’s young artists are being asked to look closer, then put what they see on paper.
The 2027 Drops of Color Calendar Art Contest is open to Gwinnett County students in grades 9 through 12, turning an everyday resource into a canvas for creativity, environmental awareness, and a little hometown perspective.
Organized by Gwinnett Water Resources, the annual contest asks students to create original artwork centered on safe, clean, reliable water and environmental stewardship. The subject is decidedly close to home: tap water and the county’s lakes, rivers, and streams rather than oceans or bottled water.
That leaves plenty of room for interpretation. Students can explore water conservation, freshwater pollution prevention, drinking water and wastewater treatment, local waterways, or the pipes, plants, and other infrastructure that keep water moving through a county of nearly 1 million residents.
Where Art Meets Everyday Life
That infrastructure can be easy to overlook, which is part of what makes the contest useful beyond the calendar itself. Gwinnett’s water and sewer systems have developed alongside decades of population growth, while Lake Lanier remains the county’s main water source. Asking teenagers to interpret that system through art makes something technical feel immediate.
Entries must be original, two-dimensional, and created without AI. Artwork should measure 8.5 by 11 inches in landscape orientation. Students can work in colored pencil, crayons, paint, pastels, photography, non-AI digital art, collage, mixed media, or another preferred medium.
Twelve submissions will be chosen for the 2027 calendar, including one for the cover. Winning artists will also be recognized with a proclamation at a Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners meeting, and selected artwork may appear at Water Resources facilities or events.
The deadline is Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 4 p.m. The online application requires a photograph of the artwork, contact information, a brief artistic statement of no more than 50 words, and a parent or guardian-signed release. Students should hang onto the original piece after submitting, since winning pieces will be collected and professionally photographed for the calendar.
For young artists, this is a chance to make something worth displaying. For everyone else, it’s a colorful reminder that the water coming from the tap has quite a story behind it.
Find more places to get creative at https://www.guidetogwinnett.com/craft-hobby-stores
